Seagate plans to begin shipping the technology with its flagship Barracuda desktop hard drive through its distribution channel in mid-2011. The drive will also be available in 3TB, 2TB, 1.5TB and 1TB capacities.

Rocky Pimentel, Seagate’s executive vice president of worldwide sales and marketing, said the drive will go a long way in addressing customer data growth, allowing customers to store more in a smaller footprint.

The GoFlex drives include an NTFS driver, which makes the GoFlex drives compatible with Windows and Mac OS X without the need for reformatting. The GoFlex Desk external drive’s sleek black 3.5-inch design sits either vertically or horizontally to accommodate any desktop environment.

Apple on Tuesday quickly released an update to address issues with Boot Camp on its new iMacs. Per AppleInsider,
buyers of the newly released Thunderbolt-equipped iMac can download Boot Camp 3.2 Update for iMac direct from Apple. The 638KB update can be downloaded from here and is only applicable to the early 2011 model iMacs.

Apple said the update addresses issues with Japanese and Korean keyboards on the early 2011 iMac. Boot Camp is Apple’s software that allows users to install Windows 7 on their Intel-based Mac.

Apple issued a similar fix in April for its new Thunderbolt-equipped MacBook Pro models. That update also addressed shutdown issues, but some users reported it caused problems with adjusting the screen brightness.

In other news, customers can now choose between the Magic Mouse and Magic Trackpad when ordering a unit from the web site. Previously, the Magic Trackpad, which was released last July, had to be purchased separately.

Customers who want both a Magic Mouse and Magic Trackpad can have both for an additional US$69. And the wired Apple Mouse is an option as well, available at no extra cost.

The new iMacs released on Tuesday also include the option of a solid state hard drive in both the 21.5-inch and 27″ models. Custom orders built with the second flash-based drive will have Mac OS X and applications installed by default on the faster solid-state drive. The second, 7200rpm, traditional hard drive can then be used to store media and files.

If you’ve been dreaming of a white iPhone 4 unit, it’s just about here.

Per AppleInsider, Apple this weekend began preparing its retail segment for the imminent launch of the company’s much-anticipated white iPhone 4 models, signaling the end of a somewhat embarrassing delay that has seen the handsets elude eager buyers since last July.

According to sources close to the story, Apple’s U.S-based retail stores began receiving promotional information overnight that features the white iPhone 4, expected to launch for both Verizon and AT&T subscribers “within the next week.”

In addition, several stores are said to have received shipment notifications for the various white iPhone 4 SKUs and have been instructed to hold those shipments in the back of the house until further notice. All indications point to an official announcement by Wednesday, April 27th.

Word that white iPhones are finally en route to Apple stores in the U.S. comes just days after the inventory systems of U.K.-based wireless carrier Vodafone indicated stock of the handsets while photos of a 16GB model in official retail packaging — carrying model number MC604B/A — were published online.

The arrival of white models is expected to serve as a boon for iPhone sales during a time of year when customers have historically held off purchasing new iPhones under the expectation of next-generation models making their debut during the summer.

This year, however, Apple is widely reported to have decided to forgo a summer iPhone introduction in favor of introducing so-called fifth-generation models in the fall, much closer to the holiday shopping season. According to sources, these new models will go into production in September and sport a unified Qualcomm baseband capable of serving both GSM and CDMA networks.

Such a move is also expected to allow Apple to align fifth-generation iPhones for a simultaneous release on both GSM and CDMA networks, meaning both AT&T and Verizon customers should be able to buy the new handsets later this year at the same time.

Apple has publicly pushed back the release of the white iPhone 4 several times over the past 9 months. In late July of last year, the company revealed that it would not be able to launch the handset alongside black models that month as it had originally planned. Instead, Apple rescheduled the launch for “Late 2010″ only to concede a few months later that it would miss that self-imposed deadline as well, telling customers not to expect white models until the Spring of 2011.

Last month, Apple was said to have finally begun production of the white models, which would become available to customers by April. The company was said to have made changes to both the handset’s original “film material” and paint mixture that were resulting in the production of a “huge” number of defective units.

As irked as you may be with Apple from time to time, there’s no doubting this: the company makes a profit and is around for the long haul.

Per Macworld, Apple announced the results of its second fiscal quarter, citing sales of US$24.67 billion and a net profit of US$5.99 billion, according to figures announced by the company Wednesday.

The company’s quarterly revenue, a record figure for the second quarter, beat year-ago sales by 83%. Profits also set a record for the quarter, and improved 95% over the US$3.07 billion in profit the company tallied in the 2010 second quarter.

Apple earned US$6.40 per share, beating last year’s second-quarter earnings of US$3.33 per share by 92%. Apple’s performance also blew away analyst estimates. Analysts were looking for the company to report US$23.34 billion in revenue and earnings of US$5.36 per share for the quarter.

During the conference call, Apple stated that it had sold 18.65 million iPhones during the quarter, which ended March 26. This figure represents an increase of 113% from the 8.75 million phones Apple sold over the same period last year. The company recorded recognized revenue of US$12.3 billion in the just-completed quarter, an increase of 126%.

All told, Apple ended its fiscal second quarter with the iPhone available in 90 countries through 186 carriers, compared to 185 carriers in 90 countries at the end of the first quarter; Apple Chief Financial Office Peter Oppenheimer noted that there had been some carrier contraction during the last three months that offset the addition of new partners such as Verizon in the U.S., SK Telecom in South Korea, and Saudi Telecom in Saudi Arabia.

Apple sold 3.76 million Macs during the second quarter, an increase of 28% over the 2.9 million Macs sold during the year-ago period. That set a record for Mac sales during the March quarter, Oppenheimer said. In particular, Mac sales compared favorably with the overall PC market, which contracted at a rate of 3% during the quarter, according to figures from IDC. That marks the twentieth consecutive quarter that Apple has outgrown the PC market, although sales numbers were below those posted by Apple for the last two quarters.

Notebooks continue to be the big driver for Mac sales, with the 2.7 million portables making up 73% of the Macs sold during the quarter. In addition to the February revamp of the MacBook Pro line, Apple also reaped the benefits of last year’s MacBook Air updates. The 1 million desktops sold were only more than during one of the last five quarters.

Apple also made notable gains internationally with Macs, seeing 76% growth in the Asia Pacific region on a year-over-year basis.

The iPad 2 shipped at the end of the quarter, on March 11 in the U.S. and on March 25 in 25 additional countries, which helped spur sales of Apple’s tablet. All told, Apple sold 4.69 million iPads during the quarter, though it didn’t break down those sales between the iPad 2 and the original model. In total, Apple has sold 19.48 million iPads since the product was released in April 2010.

Unfortunately, iPod sales continued their decline, though Apple says that the product line’s performance was ahead of expectations. The company sold 9.02 million iPods during the quarter, a drop of 17% from last year’s second-quarter figures. More than half of the iPods sold during the quarter were the iPod touch, according to Apple’s figures.

Despite that decline, Oppenheimer said that the total iPod sales were ahead of Apple’s expectation, and that the iPod remains the top-selling MP3 player in most of the countries where that data is tracked, and continues to hold onto its market-leading position in the U.S.

Apple found a silver lining in the performance of its iTunes online business, however. That segment tallied US$1.1 billion in revenues, its best quarter ever, according to Oppenheimer.

With Apple’s brick-and-mortar retail outlets approaching their 10th anniversary next month, Oppenheimer noted that the retail chains should see their 1 billionth visitor in a matter of days. During the second quarter, 71.1 million people visited the app store, up from 47 million visitors in the 2010 second quarter.

Revenue from the retail stores grew 90% to US$3.19 billion. Apple says it sold 797,000 Macs through its retail outlets, an increase of 32% from last year. About half of the Macs sold at the Apple Store were to newly minted Mac users.

Apple still plans to open 40 new stores during the 2011 fiscal year, with two-thirds of those outlets opening outside of the U.S. That includes a fifth Apple Store in China.

For the third quarter ending in June, Apple expects revenue of about US$23 billion and earnings per share of US$5.03. That compares to US$15.7 billion in revenue and earnings of US$3.51 a share for the third quarter of 2010. Prior to Wednesday’s call, analysts were looking for sales of US$23.8 billion and earnings of US$5.25 per share for the June quarter.

As nifty as Apple’s Retina Display is, it might be hard to put in all of its devices.

Per DigiTimes, component makers for Apple’s iPad claim that the company has released its roadmap for higher-resolution touchscreen tablets, but the project is still at the “initial planning stage” and an upgraded iPad is unlikely to come later this year, according to a new report.

Insiders suggest that Apple could choose AMOLED technology or a high-resolution standard as part of its plan to upgrade the image quality on the iPad.

“Sources from touch panel makers pointed out that Apple recently released its latest tablet PC plan and is asking the panel makers to provide products that are capable to support higher image quality than the current iPad 2,” the report read.

“Apple may even choose AMOLED panel or panel that support Full HD standard to accomplish the plan. However, since the project is still at the initial planning stage, the actual products are unlikely to appear in 2011.”

Sources also cautioned that Apple may hold off on moving to AMOLED because rival Samsung mostly controls the technology. “If Apple is adopting AMOLED panel into its device, Apple would be facing a great risk having the key technologies being held by its competitors,” the report noted.

Upstream component makers pointed out that, given the production ramp up for the iPad 2, launching an iPad 3 this year would “simply bite off share” from the iPad 2.

Further quashing rumors of an iPad 3 in 2011, sources said that they have yet to receive “any notice for next generation iPad products” and do not believe the iPad 2 is a “transitional product.”

Even before the iPad 2 had been announced, rumors emerged earlier this year that Apple would release an iPad 3 in 2011.

Those rumors appeared to have been put to rest after Apple CEO Steve Jobs declared 2011 “the year of iPad 2.” However, intermittent reports since then have continued to suggest that Apple could release an iPad upgrade in 2011.

According to analyst Ming-Chi Kuo with Concorde Securities, Apple faced supply constraints and cost limitations that prevented the iPad maker from adding an improved display to the iPad 2. Kuo has suggested that a Retina display is still in the pipeline, and could make its way into the iPad 3 in early 2012.

On Monday afternoon, Microsoft released version 14.1.0 (or Service Pack 1) of its popular Microsoft Office 2011 for Mac suite. The update, a 246 megabyte download, can also be located, snagged and installed via the Microsoft AutoUpdate program, offers the following fixes and changes:
- Security is improved. This update fixes vulnerabilities in Office 2011 that an attacker can use to overwrite the contents of your computer’s memory with malicious code. For more information, see the security bulletin that was listed earlier in this document.

- Stability is improved. This update fixes an issue that causes Office 2011 applications to close unexpectedly when you open or use Office 2011 applications.

- Alt Text authoring is included. This update enables the authoring of Alt Text for objects, such as shapes, pictures, tables, charts, SmartArt, and movies in Office 2011 applications.

Improvements for Microsoft Excel for Mac 2011:
- The Solver add-in is included. This update includes functionality that lets you install the Solver analysis tools in Excel 2011.

Improvements for Microsoft PowerPoint for Mac 2011:
- Password protect functionality is included. This update includes functionality that lets you protect presentations in PowerPoint 2011 by using a password.

Improvements for Microsoft Outlook for Mac 2011:
- Synchronization functionality is updated. This update increases support for Sync Services, and adds calendar, notes, and tasks syncing.

- Resend functionality is included. This update reintroduces functionality to resend an email message to the same or new recipients.

- Redirect functionality is included. This update reintroduces functionality to redirect an incoming email message to other recipients.

- Meeting invitation functionality is improved. This update improves creating meeting invitations by including a list of recently used locations.

Microsoft Office 2011 requires Mac OS X 10.5.8 or later to install and run and is available for US$149.99 and up depending on the suite purchased.

If you’ve tried the update and noticed any major changes, please let us know.

In other news, Microsoft also released version 12.2.9 of its Office 2008 suite for Mac. The update, a 333 megabyte download, adds the following fixes and changes:

- Improves stability. In addition, it includes fixes for vulnerabilities that an attacker can use to overwrite the contents of your computer’s memory with malicious code.

Microsoft Office 2008 12.2.9 requires Mac OS X 10.4 or later to install and run and
Microsoft Office 2008 with Service Pack 1. The update can, of course, be located and installed with the Microsoft AutoUpdate tool.

If you’ve tried the new version and have any comments, let us know in the comments or feedback section.

Apple Support Discussions forum user CoryCripita writes:
“So for the second time my Macbook Pro is stuck on the ****** gray screen and won’t boot. The first time this happened 2 days ago I HAD TO resort to Archive and install. The only thing that I can even think caused this was again the fact that I updated via Software Update then rebooted.”
One suggestion offered on the forum was to reset the PRAM. To do so, turn off your machine. While holding Command + Option + P + R, turn your Mac back on. Wait for the boot chime to ring three times and your machine will start normally.

Apple has released a knowledgebase article to address some causes of this problem. According to the article, the Mac booting to the gray logo screen “may happen if the computer starts up from the hard drive or from an external drive using the wrong version or build of the operating system.”

If this happens, reinstall the proper build of Mac OS X from your install DVDs that came with your Mac. Later versions of Mac OS X will also work, but the article notes that using a version of OS X that was released before the computer will likely cause this issue.

You can check and see which version of Mac OS X your machine is attempting to start from by booting your Mac in Verbose Mode. When starting up, hold Command + V. If a DOS-like white text on black screen pops up, you’ve done it correctly.

“If the computer has the wrong build of the OS installed, the startup process will stop. The following line of text will appear on the display: “Loading SystemLibraryCachescom.apple.kext.cachesstartupExtensions.mkext.””
Hold the power button to shut down and quit Verbose Mode. When you next power on your Mac it will start normally.

Per the cool cats at MacFixIt, Apple has released an update to the Boot Camp drivers for the latest MacBook Pro systems. This update addresses a couple of problems with Japanese and Korean keyboards in the system, and also fixes shutdown problems, according to the update’s download page. The update is specific for Windows 7, so if you are using an alternative version of Windows, this will not apply to you.

The update should be available for Boot Camp users via Apple’s Software Update utility, but it can also be downloaded and applied manually from the Boot Camp 3.2 Update web page. The update is 21.55MB in size.

If you’ve tried the update and noticed any changes, please let us know in the comments or feedback.